The Yellowstone Trip: Three Years in the Making (Part Two)

This is Part Two in a most likely five part series.   Be sure to read Part One to catch the beginning!

After a night at the Roosevelt Cabins, we got up and ate the breakfast food we bought at Walmart on our way into Yellowstone the day before.  We picked up non-refrigerated items such as muffins, pre-cooked bacon, breakfast bars, and the like for breakfast for the week along with packets of tuna and chicken, bread, and other lunch items that we could pack to take with us while we were out.  Our plan was to have a nice dinner and have the freedom to splurge for treats (more about that later!).  We ended up saving a lot more money than we thought we would by doing this.

Everyone found out that I was NOT a morning person on this trip.  We first started the day driving out to the Lamar Valley to see what we could check out animal-wise.   It didn’t disappoint!

An ongoing theme during our Yellowstone trip was the song “Big Buffalo.”  Earlier in the summer, I was a volunteer for our council’s summer camp for a week.  One of the songs that stuck with me (and made me giggle a lot) was this:

Big buffalo comin’ down the mountain
Long, long ago (repeat)

Long, long, ago
Long, long, ago

Big buffalo comin’ down the mountain
Long, long, ago.

You can see a YouTube video with the tune and motions that go along with it.  It’s not very complicated, as you can see.  I have to be honest.  I sang this song much to the annoyance to the girls.  Every time we saw a buffalo.  Which was a lot.  And sometimes I sang it even when we didn’t see one.  Because you’re not a Girl Scout leader if you don’t do things that make your girls roll their eyes.

After doubling back and taking a left at the Roosevelt Cabins, we traveled south toward Canyon Village.  On the way, we passed Tower Falls:

Before getting to Canyon Village, we stopped for a treat.  Yes, that’s right.  Before lunch.   In addition to big buffaloes, huckleberry ice cream was another running theme.  We couldn’t get enough of it.  It’s not available in our area of the country.

We stopped for a view and then headed into Canyon Village for a restroom break…

…and then grabbed a picnic table right outside of the Village before we headed on to the amazing views of Inspiration Falls.

I can’t say enough about the beauty of Inspiration Falls and Artist Point, so I’ll leave you with some pictures.

These pictures really do not do it justice.  The last picture is one of an osprey coming in for a landing to her two chicks.  They were extremely loud calling for “Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom….”

After visiting Inspiration Point, we cut back over from Canyon Village toward Norris Junction which took us closer to the Land of Geysers and Other Really Hot Stuff!   I won’t fill up this post with tons of pictures of Yellowstone’s hydrothermal features (read all about them here),  but I will feature some of the more famous and prominent ones as we go along.  At Norris Junction, we saw the famous Steamboat Geyser.  Here’s my commentary:

We saw a couple of other noted geysers and basins before being run out of there by a thunderstorm and heavy rain.  Of course, this popped up when we were about as far away from our van as we could be and so we hoofed it back quickly.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get all the way through the Norris Geyser Basin.  After we left there, the sudden shower stopped, and we headed toward the Artist Paint Pots on our way to Madison Junction.

Before getting there, we pulled over at a mudpot that wasn’t mentioned in any of the park-provided guides or on the app we used for navigation (see Part One), but it was mentioned in my Hamilton’s Guide.  It’s called the Chocolate Pot.  I had to see this!   Yum!  Here’s my commentary:

After doing some more reading, it’s not a geyser as I called it in the video but a mudpot.  It’s still neat though, and if you’re at Yellowstone, it’s right off the road between Norris and the Artist Paint Pots.

The Artist Paint Pots are a smaller and not as well-known area but are definitely worth the stop due to its variety of features.  Blood Geyser and the mudpots were my favorites.  The mudpots would sometimes sling mud WAAAY up into the air which was neat to see.  And they made funny GLOOP! noises.  I’m easily entertained.

We left there and continued to head south toward Madison Junction.  We stopped off at Gibbon Falls to enjoy the scenery:

From Madison Junction, we headed straight to the Old Faithful area where we were staying for the next few nights.  We checked into the cabins there and ate at the Lodge next door for dinner.  Afterwards, we stepped right outside on the Lodge porch and caught what Yellowstone is most famous for!

Old Faithful was just a short walk from our cabins, so we saw it go off many times during our stay there.  Did I mention it was my birthday?  Before the trip, some people asked me if I had a problem with being away from  home for my birthday.   I didn’t mind – in fact, it was one of my more memorable birthdays!  The sights and sounds were a great present, I thought.

Stay tuned for Part 3 which started at 6am!  😮